I like the idea of loss-of-privacy being your choice.  Let the "who cares if the government strips me of my privacy" people give it up on their own without eroding the privacy of everyone else. 

Maybe the central banks can give them a cookie as a reward.

Exactly.  It's super easy to keep backup keys for your authenticator.  Why didn't you do this?  Makes no sense, didn't you feel odd putting all your security access on having your phone there, available at all times?

What if you had lost your phone?  What if you drop your phone in the toilet, sue the water?  C'mon, for the children, please, chill on the litigation mania.  You lost a week of trading and it was YOUR fault, live and learn. 

Did another exchange for .01btc and the captcha hung.  Needed to close it and do the captcha again. Also, the type above the catpcha is scrambled.

Windows 7
Chrome


LMK if you need any more information.

Sent 1 btc at 2013-05-22 01:23:53

Received an email stating the PayPal funds will be sent within 4 hours at 01:29 UTC.

Great service, smooth and quick.

I'll consider using this service, great stuff!

I want my 30 seconds back.

Be careful with "trusting your gut".  This is also known as a system 1 thought or a reflex reaction.  Read "thinking fast and slow".

It's very easy to be fooled by incidental and unsubstantiated information when using system 1.  This is partially the reason markets behave the way they do. People are pattern seeking machines and with limited information, we can create convincing "patterns" from insufficient information.  Think making a judgement from a data set of 2.  Flip a coin 4 times and expect a 50/50 result; false.

So, my point is, look at fundamentals.  The fundamentals of bitcoin are unique so you really need to think about it, but they are there for the most part. Fundamentally, bitcoin has a lot of room to grow; think global currency.  Think math based currency banking adoption.  Think simplicity your Mom can use and the level of adoption at that point. Think regulation and the complexities of effect then.  Think efficient exchanges.  Think VC investment.  Think Ripple.  Think traditional payment system integration.   

Well said. Everyone focuses on closed source.

To quote an analogy I used before. Ripple is choosing to build the plane before they fly it.

Oh I see. Congrats, btw!

Just out of curiosity, why did you not accept btc from the beginning?

Yes, true. Ripple solves this problem.

For the sake of the Bitcoin only argument, though, I think the idea of verifying unconfirmed transactions would be useful.

I agree and disagree with this.

People create to solve problems. If the creation solves problems, sometimes the technology gets adopted at scale. If the creations are "me-too's" and don't solve a problem, they usually don't get adopted at scale.

With that said, there are a multitude of examples showing otherwise. Humans are interesting when it comes to the logic behind the decisions they make.

Importantly, when you really look at what Ripple is, it's not a "me-too". It solves problems. A decentralized exchange is powerful in itself and, as you know, there is more to Ripple than just the exchange. Being able to transact business with anyone, anywhere, at almost no cost, with any currency... that's pretty disruptive. Ripple is also designed to handle microtransactions efficiently, facilitating an expanse in microtransaction business that will be a huge benefit to the internet and content in general.

Unfortunately, everyone is focused on XRP. XRP isn't the point, it doesn't need to be used as a currency.

You have a point. After your comment, I realized there are probably a lot of things regarding bitcoin that I only have a cursory knowledge of.  So, I started to do some research to try and catch up.  Any response to help verify or dispute my understanding would be greatly appreciated.

The first thing I started with was the Satoshi original white paper. Something stood out to me, in section 8:


This sounds very similar to what I was describing, except exchange miner with node.

So then, I thought to myself: well, what is the difference between a miner and a node? This is something I always assumed was the same thing.

But, AFAIK, it would seem that a business would be wise to run a node for speed and security. Wouldn't businesses do this in the future and wouldn't that in turn become a lot of the power of the network, even when there are no more block rewards.

To make it more effective, you would verify your own transactions faster than others. I suppose it would be difficult to single out transactions from their business; so like, confirm the vending machine transactions before others.  Would that be possible?  Could the miner single out transactions that are a certain value, technically?

Hey cool stuff, Luigi!  Have you won any t-shirt design contests? I'm sure you could win a woot or goodjoe.com contest; excellent stuff

Why doesn't someone who wants to operate vending machines also operate a mining rig that specifically prioritizes confirms from transactions from it's vending machines?  This way, it could release the goods immediately from receiving the btc and then expedite the confirmations thus minimizing risk of double spends.

Yeah, you are right.  The option is back for me now.  They must just be low on stock.

I contacted BTCPak and this is what they said:

"We are currently validating our options.  Please stay tuned."

So I guess it's just a stock issue. Thanks for your response.

I know this product isn't the most popular, given the steep fees, but has Blockchain.info removed the feature?

There usually is a withdrawal option on blockchain.info but I don't see it anymore.

Anyone have any more information on this?

This is a cool idea.  Here is what I do that could be relevant:

Design:
T-shirt designs (5 years experience in the industry)
Graphic design, various
Club flyers
Digital marketing material
Other design services, contact me for more info

Business
Business development
Strategic planning for small to medium sized companies, contact me for more info and references

I sold XRP for bitcoin earlier this week. Has it recently closed?

EDIT: Just checked, the exchange for XRP/BTC is working.

No one cares about that MLM garbage.  That's not what ripple is.

Why not just sell xrp through the ripple interface?